Battlefield 2 Startup Crashing

Scouring the internet for weeks looking for a solution, I've come across the absurdity that while I can run Battlefield 2 1.0 or whatever the original version is called without ANY problem whatsoever besides the occaisional crash, ANY upgrade or patch will make it unable to start properly because of my graphics card.

I use an Nvidia 6100, and while EA has specifically listed the graphics cards BF2 works on, I know people who can run 1.41 with an Nvidia 6100 or lower, so to me the diagnosis sounds like a smokescreen for stupidity.

I've tried:

Patch 1.3x and 1.4x
Reformatting
Reinstalling three times
Refresh rate and graphical settings changes

Anybody else have a suggestion?

right click my computer go to properties and tell me your windows experience index numbers.